Drains, details and rock stars

Diamond V TheTrusted Experts in Nutrition & Health^{TM
March 2013}

Plugging the profit drains

One of the biggest profit drains on farms is feed shrink. Shrink can be in many forms, from wind, animals, delivery weight errors, tires and tracking, to silage bunker management, moisture loss, feed refusals, mixing errors, scale accuracy, and water on feedstuffs. Feed shrink can range from 5% to 20%...
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Come view the visual Diamond V

Our new video series illustrates our role in a changing world

The dairy is in the details

Details, simplicity and consistency rule in North Carolina

Rock stars at Star Rock Farms

"A barn full of good looking, quality cows."

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DV management news

The visual Diamond V

If you've been to our Diamond V web site lately, you may have noticed a new video series posted on the front page.

I hope you'll give them a look when you have a few moments. The videos are each just a few minutes long, but cover a lot of bases in giving you a better understanding of Diamond V's expertise in fermentation technology, research leadership, strategic priorities for a new era in global agriculture, and a bit of our heritage. We take you inside our company, our facilities and inside the minds of our leadership team.

I do recommend you save the video entitled "Trusted Experts" for last. It ties it all together, illustrating how our company integrates multiple points of expertise and relationships to provide the producer with a comprehensive suite of advisory services and planning assistance to make your dairy operation as successful as possible.

I hope you agree these videos illustrate that Diamond V today is more than an ingredient provider. Much more.

As always, we appreciate your readership of DairyAdvisor and always welcome your input.

Kind regards,

Mike

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Producer Spotlight

Details matter

Who: Garrett Englebert, Josh Myers, Barry Myers, and Ethan Myers

(pictured above)

What:

Myers Farms, Inc.

Where: Union Grove, NC

The call for protocols: Striving to do things right is an everyday occurrence at Myers Farm, Paying attention to the details is just the way things are done. The Myers strive to produce a quality product. All the diligence is paying off for the 1336-cow herd. The herd is averaging 46,000 somatic cell count for the month of February, while also averaging 90 pounds of milk.

To achieve such high levels of milk quality, the Myers family has found that having protocols in place and not varying from them is a key. The cows are housed in freestall barns with mechanically washed and reclaimed sand bedded stalls. The stalls are rebedded twice per week and groomed three times per day as the cows go to the parlor. The stalls are unique in design. They previously had mattresses in the stalls but decided to use sand as the bedding of choice. The stalls were concreted in the bottom. Instead of removing the concrete, they installed a 4-inch PVC on top of the back of the curb and filled them with sand. Barry says, "He feels like the stalls are actually drier than if they had an earthen base because moisture can drain from under the PVC pipe." He also says, "having a well trained milking crew following a consistent protocol is a big part of their success." The Myers follow a strict protocol on parlor maintenance as well. The vacuum and pulsators are checked manually every week and checked every other week with a Tri-Scan by their equipment dealer.

The heifer plan: Barry also feels like their heifer replacement program has allowed the herd to be more successful in several ways. The have all heifers, after weaning, housed in freestall barns as well. "Our heifers have less respiratory problems so when they enter the milking herd, they are not limited by previous health challenges, which allows them to be more productive", Barry said. By having less stress from the replacement herd, this allows the heifer's immune system to be stronger. Since the replacement program has worked so well and death loss is low, this allows the Myers to have enough heifers to be able to do more voluntary culling as well.

This operation is truly a family affair. Barry Myers, his wife Mary Jane, sons Ethan and Josh, and brother Tony along with assistant herdsman Garrett Englebert, all have their areas of responsibility. While working with the Myers, it is obvious why they do so well. They are very open to suggestions that may help them improve their operation and are continually looking at ways to improve their operation.

The ration rationale--simplicity: Barry says, "Our ration is the simplest it has been in years." Their goal is to harvest the best possible forage to allow the ration to be simple. When the base of the ration is forage, having high quality forage allows them to achieve the higher level of production they desire. From a grain standpoint, they do things somewhat differently than most large farms. They buy their grain already mixed and delivered to them. Barry said, "That goes against what is common in today's industry, but we do that to reduce variation in the ration." After conducting a Diamond V TMR Audit, other challenges that create variation in the ration were uncovered and solutions to minimize or omit the issues were discussed. After making some of the suggested changes, the cows responded with higher milk production and the ration gained greater consistency.

Always ask "why": Barry attended a Diamond V producer meeting this past October. In one of the presentations given, producers were challenged to look at their feed additives being used and consider why they are using them. Barry returned home and while doing a routine ration evaluation, he and his nutritionist discussed all additives being used. What they found out was that "challenges from the past had caused the inclusion of some additives but they had not been reevaluated to see if they could be removed," mentioned Barry. He also said, "It is easy to put additives in for a specific reason, and when things are going well you just don't look at it and see if they still need to be in the ration." When all additives were reviewed, approximately $0.70 per head was removed from the diet. Diamond V DiaMune was added to the diet at this time as well because the ration contained an organic selenium source as an individual ingredient. DiaMune is a product that contains both organic SelenoSource selenium and Diamond V Yeast Culture made in a unique manufacturing process that allows the dairy to obtain the benefits of both technologies in a reduced-priced formulation. Since the changes have been made, production has increased, the cows are healthy and bottom line profitability has been dramatically improved.

It is inspiring to work with an operation like Myers Farm, Inc. Barry, Ethan, Josh and Garrett always have a positive attitude and enjoy what they do. That is why the details that allow them to achieve the level of success they desire get attention. When the future of the operation is discussed, it is about figuring out how they can expand to add another 500 cows. New barns are in the planning process and the wheels are turning in their minds on how to get to the goal. When you walk on this farm, you quickly realize this team cares about what they are doing and want to operate at a high level. In each of their minds and employees' minds as well, it is clear they realize "details matter."

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